Dogs lose early lead; deep-sixed at foul line

Third-seeded Xavier woke up the delirious Bulldogs after their whirlwind week with a 73-61 defeat in the first round of the NCAA Tournament on Thursday at the Verizon Center.

All it took to jolt the Bulldogs' win streak was their lack of opportunities at the free-throw line. Conversely, the Musketeers lived there after half.

Xavier (28-6) went to the foul line 33 times, including 29 times in the second half, and sank 27 free throws.

Georgia (17-17) went 3-for-5, and that's why Xavier advanced to Round 2 of the West Regional and will play Purdue at about 5 p.m. Saturday.

"When things got tough and physical, we did everything that we could do to pound it in the paint and get to the free-throw line," Georgia coach Dennis Felton said.

"But it seemed no matter what we did, we couldn't get there. That was the pivotal point in the game. We defended well, shot well, rebounded well enough to out-rebound them, which is a task against Xavier. We did a lot of things well."

"But I thought the game got separated in our inability to get to the line as much as Xavier," Felton added.

No. 14 seed Georgia, which had won four straight games and captured the SEC Tournament title this past Sunday, led by as many as 11 points three times in the beginning of the second half, but squandered the advantage when Xavier went on and 18-3 run that spanned nearly seven minutes. Josh Duncan hit two of his 11 foul shots to spark the surge and sealed it with a basket. B.J. Raymond's 3-pointer in the middle of the run tied the game 49-all with 7:51 left in the game. Dante Jackson followed up with another 3-pointer with 7:19 left to give the Musketeers the lead for good.

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"It was tough for us," freshman guard Zac Swansey said. "They kind of got the ball inside and we wanted to keep it out of the paint as much as possible. They're a great foul-shooting team. We couldn't keep it out of there. We were trying to make them earn them at the line, but they stepped up and knocked them down."

The Bulldogs stayed close with the Atlantic 10 regular-season champions in other categories.

Georgia made 26 of 56 field goals and limited Xavier to 20 of 47 shooting. They out-rebounded the Musketeers 31-29. Both teams hit six 3-pointers.

Billy Humphrey's jumper with 17 seconds left in the first half capped a 10-2 run and gave the Bulldogs a 35-26 lead at halftime.

The Musketeers had an eight-point lead with less than five minutes left, but Terrance Woodbury cut it to four with a 3-pointer and a foul shot. The Bulldogs were down 64-61 with 1:34 left, but Xavier hit nine straight free throws. The Musketeers' final 12 points came off of foul shots.

Woodbury led the Bulldogs with 16 points, including three 3-pointers, and seven rebounds. Sundiata Gaines had 13 points, six assists and four rebounds and Billy Humphrey added 12 points.

"I came into this tournament feeling like there's no reason why we should be able to continue what we did the SEC Tournament," Felton said. "I felt like we did a pretty good job of that and we did it against an excellent, excellent team."

Said Humphrey: "I don't think it's hit me yet. Now that our season's over, we can really sit back and realize what we did."